senator chuck hagel has had a close relationship with president obama. and i happen to know from a number of sources that the quality of conversation, that the nature of their conversation is a very direct, often not in agreement and that the president is not bringing on board a yes man. the second thing we need to know is that we have been dealing with chuck hagel and a way that we ought to be debating the secretary of state. this will be the secretary of defense. this is about deploying power or run the world and managing strategic assets and managing a shift where the president has said that we now have or did we have overweighted our resources in the middle east and south asia and we have underweighted our presence in asia looking at china. that shift is like moving a giant ship of spending, resources, american men and women being deployed in different places, as well as strategic asset purchasing, what weapons and technologies. and as we bring down the defense budget, smart choices need to happen so that at the end of the day, the department of defe